The next OCE Workshop is planned Thursday, January 11th (13h-14h).
We will have the great pleasure of welcoming Chaïma Benzekri. Chaïma is a PhD student at emlyon. She’ll be giving a talk entitled:
« Financial sustainability, an act of solidarity or tool of domination? The case of Lebanese social organizations in the aftermath of the 2020 Beirut explosion »
Abstract: Financial sustainability has been a pressing challenge for social organisations as it ensures the sustaining of their social actions. Scholars have addressed this issue in western and stabilized context, yet few has been said about reaching financial sustainability in time of high uncertainty and growing economic and social challenges in the Global South. In this paper I explore the challenges faced by Lebanese social organisations in their quest for financial support. Building on a comparative study of five organisations I question the relevance of answering the call for financial sustainability in a context of high uncertainty. Results have shown that financial sustainability is a concern anchored in western and neoliberalism logics of market and holds with difficulty in highly uncertain market environment. Furthermore, the funding system of Lebanese social organisations reinforce colonial practices where the North diffuse its own management and accounting practices to “save” the South. The current system reinforces inequalities as only the organisations with financial literacy got access to funding. Meanwhile the study shows that social organisations who dot completely conform to the western model are the one who sustain and even expand their activities.